The artist and her work

Part of the website has been translated in english. It has been limited to the most important data about the artist an her work, since we're convinced that the works can speak for themselves.
Elke Matthijs was born in
Elke’s present work has been evolved through the incessant stacks of sketches about everyday events. Draughts get worked out in drawings and paintings and some of them are digested and repeated towards the essence of a cast sculpture. The main theme still centres women, women in relation with herself or her environment. One moment of an apparent banal situation enlarged and caught in bronze: the woman and her dogs elated with joy, people with lifted shoulders in endless rains, the agreeable sharing of a meal,…These are moments of deep connection with oneself, the other or nature. It is the expression of true emotions bursting out spontaneously. De sculptures make at once contact with the observer since these emotions evoke immediate recognition, consciously or unconsciously. One perceives a sensorial, nearly nostalgic connection with that what really matters in ones life: the intensity of being one with ones acts. The delicacy and perishableness of these dear moments is expressed sharply with the subtle water-thin use of the bronze.
I also aim a social commitment with my work. Especially the disturbed relationship between human and animal or human and nature, women’s emancipation and respect for the small are ever returning themes.
My pieces of art are layered and have multiple meanings. Therefore they are no bite-sized chunks to the observer. I have learned that a lot of people have the intension to understand the meaning of my works so I try to give them an appropriate title as a hint, although I still cherish the free interpretation of the observer. I think art should be mind-expanding. It ought to tear us away from routine and shallowness, it should move and confront us, awake us and excite us to live. It were to incite one to turn into an unknown walk. I always hope that my work will raise thoughts and emotions that can help the observer come closer to oneself.’